Talk:Legio VIIII Hispania

So is there a story behind the "VIIII" (as opposed to "IX")??

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Maccalus: Yes, the Legion was referred to as 'VIIII' in several surviving inscriptions, particularly those commemorating the Judean War. Romans were very superstitious, and they often corrupted their "pure" system of Roman numerals so that their written numbers were more auspicious under various numerological systems. Five ('V') was held to be the sacred number of Mars, the Roman god of war, and there is no 'V' anywhere in 'IX' (except in one little-understood numerological system where the 'X' was held to be an upright 'V' sitting on top of another upside-down 'V!') It's only natural that soldiers marching off to battle would try to propitiate their god of war with offerings on behalf of the 'VIIII' legion instead of the 'IX' legion, especially considering that the god of war was already thought to favor the the numeral 'V' wherever it appeared. This sort of number-play wasn't limited to the military... followers of Hermes/Thoth/Mercury considered the number "two" to be sacred and inscribed the number in all sorts of bizarre ways which had some significance to them... the number was sometimes written "IIIV," or even "VIIIX," for numerological reasons. By the way, in addition to the '9' in "Ninth Legion" being written "IX" and "VIIII," there are also references to the Ninth Legion where "Nine' is written "VIV" (which is also the Latin root for "life") and "IVV" because these numbers were thought to be more favorable to the gods.

This sort of stuff is mostly academic, but it interests me. Military service was thought to be a sacred duty in the early Imperial era, especially during the Claudian dynasty. Upon entering the legions, even rank-and-file grunts had to go through a formal ceremony of investiture at one of the temples or shrines of Mars. Senior officers had to be cleansed and sanctified at the temple of Mars on the Capitoline hill-- the epicenter of Mars worship in Rome. Some historians think that the Legatus of a legion was blessed at the temple of Jupiter, since Jupiter was the patron god of the Senate, and a Legatus acted with the Senate's full authority. We don't have anything comparable to Roman state religion in modern Western civilization. Religion permeated everything! I'm reading and researching, and want to try to capture some of this in the inner workings of our company.

Great question!